


once, twice, three times

by agnea



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Gen, Goddess Tower (Fire Emblem), Introspection, Lowercase, Non-Graphic Violence, POV Second Person, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:28:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25199284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agnea/pseuds/agnea
Summary: the goddess tower, three different moments in time.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd & My Unit | Byleth, Edelgard von Hresvelg & My Unit | Byleth, My Unit | Byleth & Claude von Riegan
Kudos: 7





	once, twice, three times

**Author's Note:**

> sometimes you just have to write something small and introspective
> 
> [my twitter ](https://mobile.twitter.com/_agnea_)  
> [my tumblr](https://www.ag-nea.tumblr.com/)

"what do you think will happen in the future?" claude asks. there's a frenetic energy to the question, something hidden in the wisdom of his gaze, the slope of his nose, the slight hair growing on his chin. _he's_ growing too, blossoming into a young man, a leader in every sense of the word.

you stare out at the starless sky, deep and endless in its possibilities. _help me, pick me,_ claude says with his body the words he would never say with his mouth.

"i don't know," you say. "hopefully something good."

* * *

"what do you think will happen in the future?" asks edelgard. she's let her hair down from its ribbons, lilac in the palm of her hands, fingers steeped red in imaginary blood, phantom gore, fake carnage.

war is coming. garreg mach lies on a fault line, just a few moments away from collapsing into ruins before your very eyes.

in one world, the sword of the creator lies its tip on the delicate skin of edelgard's neck. in the other, rhea's fury burns bright as a bonfire as you break the sanctity of her mother's death right before her eyes. war is coming. war is coming. war is coming.

"change," you answer, sounding more sure than you feel. this time, no more status quo.

* * *

"professor, no, byleth," dimitri says, eyes upon the moon, "what do you think the future will bring for us?"

variety, this time.

you've killed him before. stood above him, blade drawn as he snarls and spits at you, feral king without an eye, without a cause, without those he holds dear. you have taken everyone he loves away, whether through the screams of pain as you cut them down or the haunted looks on their faces when you led them astray from his light.

but you've supported him too. in life, in politics, in love. you've mended his eyepatch. held his hand.

rain falls, but it doesn't. you shiver, but you don't.

_"was your hand always this warm?"_ the dimitri from your memories asks, your palm against his cheek.

"an end," you reply, voice bleak. whether that a happy or a miserable one, even you don't know.

* * *

four paths lay before you. three hands for you to take.

which will you choose this time, ashen demon?


End file.
